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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/23710672">The Exchange</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/someonenotyou/pseuds/someonenotyou'>someonenotyou</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>The Arcana (Visual Novel)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>M/M</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-04-18</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-04-18</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-18 09:55:20</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Mature</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>2,001</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/23710672</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/someonenotyou/pseuds/someonenotyou</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>A re-write of the getting ready for the masquerade scene. Lucio isn't patient, and Kikou (my apprentice) isn't either. Anything can happen between these two.<br/>One shot.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Apprentice/Lucio (The Arcana)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>3</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>31</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>The Exchange</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>"Ah-ah," Kikou motioned with his finger as Lucio dropped his cloak and jacket over the discarded pieces of his golden arm, and began to undo his shirt. He was halfway down the buttons when admonished, and looked up with pursed lips and a wide eyed, shifty gaze that said he was caught at doing something wrong, but wasn't sure just what...yet. "Lucio, you are a mess."</p><p> </p><p>A length of blond hair shifted into Lucio's vision as if to punctuate that point. "Well, that's just rude, Kikou."</p><p> </p><p>"I meant, we are both tired and dirty." Kikou motioned to the washroom attached to the suite that Nadia had given him. He smirked. "I know in ghost form you don't need to worry about, you know." He motioned to his own chin. Lucio absently brushed his own face with his hand and was genuinely surprised to feel a slight bit of stubble there. "C'mon. Teeth, face, hair." Kikou grinned as he shed his own tunic and headed for the washroom. "Now."</p><p> </p><p>"Bossy," Lucio muttered under his breath, but with no malice. He was nearly grinning when he entered the washroom and was motioned to sit on a stool, backed up to the basin. "Are you going to pamper me, Kikou?"</p><p> </p><p>"If you're good, and don't squirm." Kikou looked through the washbasin items and found a shave kit with a straight razor. He raised a brow and looked to Lucio. "Don't make me responsible for your second demise. Especially since we're in a hurry."</p><p> </p><p>"Nadia said we had enough time to get ready. I take that as an open window," Lucio said. He watched as Kikou poured hot water that was waiting, as if the servants knew exactly what they would need, and dipped a towel into it. He caught a glimpse of himself in the mirror and ran his fingers through the stubble again. "Are you sure? I might want to grow a beard. I hear they are coming back into fashion. Nadia's father always had some amazing facial hair."</p><p> </p><p>"Hmm," Kikou turned and surveyed Lucio with one hand holding the warmed towel. Lucio bit his lip, trying not to squirm - with delight - under scrutiny. "You would be good with a beard. And longer hair, perhaps. But you won't grow either in the hour or so we have until the masquerade starts."</p><p> </p><p>"You truly wish for me to grow out my hair?"</p><p> </p><p>"I may be biased," Kikou said, motioning to his own long, wavy brown locks. "But I don't need to tell you that you'd be handsome however you choose. Now. Sit still." He began with the warm towel, and was keenly aware of the closeness between them and how Lucio watched him. He put warm water through Lucio's hair as he waited, and combed it out. Lucio didn't protest as he parted it and combed it different than Lucio's standard slicked back style. The man did have a good head of hair, and it reacted wonderfully under Kikou's hands. He stropped the razor, and began mixing the lather, and kept an eye on Lucio, who he knew was not one to sit still for long. However, Lucio waited patiently, which was unheard of, but perhaps being pampered truly did relax him. "Did you fall asleep?"</p><p> </p><p>"I'm tempted."</p><p> </p><p>Kikou laughed and removed the towel, then began to apply the lather with delicate, circular strokes. Again, he was close to Lucio, and he did so deliberately. Lucio tried not to make a face as the brush tickled him under his nose, and did his best to sit as still as possible when Kikou put the brush down and picked up the razor. "I mean it, Lucio. Perfectly still."</p><p> </p><p>Lucio didn't even nod. He was pliable under Kikou's hands as he turned the former count's face this way and that way, and as he tilted up his chin to shave along his jawline. Lucio's stubble was blond and hardly visible, but Kikou only wanted a reason to spend some quiet time with Lucio, after all they had been through so far. He could see how the other's were exasperated with Lucio's antics, but he had come to believe that Lucio was not purposely attempting to cause trouble...most of the time. In his youth...Kikou had a hard time justifying some of Lucio's actions, especially patricide, but...that was not something he needed to worry about, he told himself. For now. He still had a mission. That was what was important.</p><p> </p><p>Right?</p><p> </p><p>He'd heard so many horrifying stories of Lucio, he wondered how many were real and how many were rumors or exaggerations. Although he did have power with a sword, and was good in a fight, he wasn't the brightest match in the box. Kikou assumed he was confused, and made decisions based on what he thought he was supposed to do and achieve, not what he really wanted. He supposed that three years of isolation and deprivation of any contact, including touch, realigned him back to a basic level that was somehow formless and waiting for change. Some structure. Something.</p><p> </p><p>He removed the razor, with one side done, and rinsed the razor. Lucio took the moment to talk. "You are very quiet, Kikou. For you."</p><p> </p><p>"I was just thinking."</p><p> </p><p>"When other's think, it makes me...um..." Lucio searched for a word, but the meaning was on his face.</p><p> </p><p>"Anxious?"</p><p> </p><p>"I don't like to guess. When I guess, I make assumptions, and then the decisions I make...don't work out."</p><p> </p><p>"That's quite introspective of you."</p><p> </p><p>"Tell me what you are thinking." Lucio paused. "Please."</p><p> </p><p>Kikou sighed. "I wonder, Lucio, if everything you'd said to me, and everything we've...shared so far is...true. If you mean it." He went to start shaving the other side of Lucio's face, but Lucio stopped him before he could put razor to skin. "What?"</p><p> </p><p>"I...may have fibbed...a little bit," Lucio blushed. "Um...but I just didn't want you to think badly of me. Everyone else already does. I couldn't bear it if you did."</p><p> </p><p>"I know, but that isn't what I meant. Now shush," Kikou said as he continued with his task. "I meant...when we were in the snow, and you kissed me. When you held me...and everything you said to me. I enjoy those things, and I am never one to turn down something fun," Kikou smirked down at Lucio, who was afraid to speak with the razor so close to his face. "Did you mean any of that? Or is it like Nadia? Just something to do? Something to acquire? Another piece of...whatever puzzle you are putting together?"</p><p> </p><p>Lucio swallowed. The razor was close to his throat, but he risked the chance to talk. "Kikou...I may be a hopeless flirt, but I never play with someone's affections." He raised a brow. "I have standards."</p><p> </p><p>"Lucio."</p><p> </p><p>"I...may have been just very excited to touch someone, at first," Lucio admitted. "And you did not say no. But...I think, that changed. When I realized that I was the reason that you died I..." He looked away. His throat worked. "You should continue, Kikou. Or...I can finish. If you want."</p><p> </p><p>"What is it?"</p><p> </p><p>"Things...but...I don't know how to say them." Lucio turned his gaze far from Kikou, focusing on the bathtub at the far end of the washroom. "I don't...I am not...<em>ready...</em>but I meant it. I didn't <em>lie."</em></p><p> </p><p>Kikou blushed. He delicately turned Lucio's face back to him, even if Lucio avoided looking him in the eyes. Lucio was flushed pink with blush, and his eyebrows worried to a crease that betrayed Lucio's age. Luckily, Lucio's mouth was free of lather, and Kikou bent to press a kiss to Lucio's lips. Lucio looked up at him, bewildered.</p><p> </p><p>"What was that for?"</p><p> </p><p>"For being honest, Lucio."</p><p> </p><p>Lucio blushed, but wisely said nothing as Kikou finished up the shave. He sat calmly as Kikou wiped away any stray lather, and cleared his throat as Kikou began to fish in the basin kit for cream. He didn't expect for Kikou to circle the chair and to push his knees slightly apart with his own booted toe, and he <em>definitely</em> didn't expect for Kikou to place one leg astride his thigh, and then the other astride the other, and then he was <em>straddling</em> Lucio, a tin of cream in one hand, and Lucio's shirt collar in the other.</p><p> </p><p>They were nearly nose to nose, now. "Steady me," Kikou breathed. Lucio obeyed, almost wide eyed, his hand finding Kikou's waist. Kikou opened the tin to the cream and leaned forward, way forward, to put the lid on the basin, then sat back to dip his fingers into the cream. Lucio's other hand came up, gold and free from its sharp, battle ready bits, and rested against Kikou's thigh. Kikou made no protest, and began to gently rub the cream into Lucio's face. He went deliberately slow, his fingers tracing maddening circles in the freshly shaved skin. When they passed over Lucio's throat, Lucio's lips parted, his teeth nearly bared, and the hand on Kikou's thigh trailed down to grasp the heel of his boot. The other hand grasped up Kikou's back, only for Kikou to switch hands and begin rubbing cream into the other side of Lucio's face.</p><p> </p><p>"Perhaps we can skip the masquerade," Lucio said. He tried to kiss Kikou, who kept his lips just out of Lucio's reach. "If you've seen one, you've seen them all."</p><p> </p><p>"I haven't seen any," Kikou said, giving a false pout. He set aside the tin, where, he didn't know, and rested both hands against's Lucio's face. His thumb trailed down to feel Lucio's pulse, then his throat. "There. Perfect."</p><p> </p><p>"Please," Lucio said. "Let me kiss you."</p><p> </p><p>Kikou smirked. "If you've had one, you've had them all."</p><p> </p><p>Lucio's hands gripped a bit tighter, but Lucio didn't move past that. Kikou had a hold on him, a hold he couldn't break. Not Kikou. Not him. He was not going to make the same mistakes again. He had a second chance...a second chance he <em>didn't deserve</em>. And he didn't know how Kikou felt about him, but Lucio didn't want to ruin it. He didn't know the <em>right way to be</em>, but he knew that Kikou did. He had to. And therefore, what Kikou said, went. If Kikou didn't want him, didn't want his touch, or his kiss, he was going to follow that rule. Oh, how he wanted that rule. He wanted Kikou to have that power. He would beg for it. "Please..."</p><p> </p><p>"Please what, Lucio?"</p><p> </p><p>"Let me kiss you. Please, Kikou. Please."</p><p> </p><p>"Mmm," Kikou pretended to think on it. "Since you were so good, and sat so still...you may."</p><p> </p><p>Lucio kissed him, and did his best not to explode in barely held back fervor. He remembered that even though Kikou liked fun like this, he did not like it to be harsh. He liked to be <em>treated well</em>. Lucio kissed him as delicately yet as passionately as he could. He enjoyed the feel of the other's lips against his, and how Kikou's body was flush against his. He felt Kikou's hands in his hair, and moaned a bit. Kikou smirked, then grasped his jawline to hold him still. He felt Kikou slip tongue into his mouth, again, delicately, beautifully, and slow. Lucio tried to copy him, but Kikou was in control. He gave Lucio enough, just enough, before pulling away, the darkness of his eyes partially visible through whisps of his brown hair.</p><p> </p><p>"C'mon," Kikou said softly. He slowly extricated himself from Lucio's grasp, although Lucio let him slip away bit by bit, without argument. Kikou stood and ran both his hands through his hair, and let Lucio take a moment to appreciate <em>him</em> for once. "Let's finish getting ready." He extended a hand to Lucio, who took it almost in a daze. Kikou chuckled. "Besides...I heard you looked dashing in gold..."</p>
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